Love is a Gamble
by M. Pond
Summary: When Alice and Frank break up, Lily finds herself wondering if her own relationship has a chance after all.


**A/N:** So originally there was this Pride and Prejudice quote that I kept looking at and I couldn't resist writing a story about it. But then I started writing and this thing took on a mind of its own and it started to head somewhere else entirely. But I liked where it was going so I ran with it. Hopefully at some point I will actually write a story using the P&P quote but for now there is this, written on the spur of the moment on a Sunday afternoon. Also I got far too excited that you can now select 'Marauders' when you're choosing the world your story is set in. When did that happen?

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><p><em>Love is a gamble<em>  
><em>It's a chance that you take<em>  
><em>You lay your heart down<em>  
><em>And you bet it won't break<em>

_-Randy Travis_

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><p>The common room was relatively crowded for a Wednesday evening, filled with the chatter of the various students who felt that it was still too early to head off to bed. Though it was almost the end of March, the fire was blazing and the heavy drapes were shut so as to block out the rain that was falling outside. A small group of first years were gathered around the table in front of the fire, caught up in a game of exploding snap and shrieking their heads off every time the cards exploded. They remained blissfully ignorant of the disapproving looks Lily was shooting them over the top of her book, screaming with laughter as the cards exploded and one of the boys found himself with a face covered in ash.<p>

Lily let out a sigh as she once again glared over at the group in front of her but they didn't take any notice of her disapproval. She could have gone over and asked them to keep it down but they were having fun and that was becoming something of a rarity these days with the escalating war. Also she had managed to grab the coveted armchair beside the fire and she knew the moment that she stood up, the third-year who kept sneaking glances over at her would run and take it. So instead she turned back to her textbook that she was idly reading and turned the page. But rather than revising for tomorrow's Defence Against the Dark Arts test like she was supposed to, she found her thoughts drifting to Alice who was refusing to leave the dorm. Her friend had disappeared shortly into lunch, and Lily hadn't been particularly worried, even after she had failed to show up to study in the library during their free period. She had assumed that Alice was off in a broom cupboard somewhere with Frank, any thoughts of studying for the test far from her mind, and she had instead passed the afternoon with James who had adamantly refused to acknowledge that he needed to revise. It wasn't until he had left to go and practice Quidditch plays with Sirius, and she had returned to the dormitory, that she had found Alice and discovered the real reason behind her disappearance.

When Lily had walked into their dorm, she had found that the drapes around Alice's bed were drawn shut, her schoolbag and shoes casually abandoned on the floor. There was the faint sound of sniffling coming from within and the occasional loud sob.

"Alice?" Lily had called out tentatively, kicking off her own shoes and making her way over to her friend's bed.

"Lily?" came the reply, and a moment later her friend's familiar face appeared from behind the curtains.

But rather than the usual bright smile that graced her friend's face, there were puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks. Her bottom lip was wobbling and another tear fell down her cheek as she looked over at her friend.

"What's happened?" Lily asked as she rushed over to her friend and pulled her into a tight hug.

Alice didn't answer and instead simply cried into Lily's shirt. As gently as she could, Lily shuffled back on the bed and pulled Alice closer to her, rubbing her back and letting her soak her shirt with her tears.

Of the two girls, Lily had always been the more emotional. That wasn't to say that she broke down at every little thing but rather that it was extremely rare to see Alice Williams cry. Alice's father, an auror for the past twenty years, was of the belief that tears were a sign of weakness, and he had drilled the idea into his two children. Whereas every cut and scrape had earned Lily a hug and a kiss, Alice had been expected to brush it off and carry on. So every knock that Alice faced at Hogwarts, be it a P on a Potions essay or a jibe about her buckteeth, she brushed off with ease. Lily was always amazed by her friend's ability to simply carry on when she herself had wanted to break down there and then when she had received a D for a Transfiguration essay she had spent hours working on. And that was what made this sight so strange. Because Alice Williams never cried.

After a few minutes, Alice's sobs became softer and Lily could feel her friend calming. It took another minute or so for her to pull away but when she did, she could see the pain in her friend's eyes. If there was one thing Alice was known for, it was her positive outlook on everything and her _joie de vivre _as Professor Flitwick called it. But there was no hint of that joy in her friend's eyes at that moment; instead there was only sadness

"Alice, what happened?" she asked, reaching up and brushing away some of her tears.

She watched as she took a deep breath, her lip trembling as if she was going to start crying again at any moment, and wiped away the tears that were falling down her face.

"Frank…he…er…he dumped me." Her voice was shaking as she spoke and Lily found herself hoping that she had misheard. But her usually happy friend's heartbroken demeanor told her that she had not.

"Oh Alice," she said, pulling her into another hug.

"He pulled me aside at lunch and I thought everything was fine," she mumbled as she returned the hug. "But then he said that he loved me but that he didn't think it was working out. Apparently he doesn't see us having a future and with graduation coming, he doesn't want…he doesn't want me to be stuck in a relationship that's not going anywhere." She paused, choking back a sob, and looked up at her friend. "I love him so much, Lily. What am I going to do?"

That had been almost five hours ago and Lily had spent most of the evening comforting Alice and telling her that it was all going to be okay. If she had been asked to bet on the couple in their year that would still be together in twenty years time, she would have put all her money on Alice and Frank without a second thought. They had been together since the autumn of fifth year, and Lily had watched their relationship grow and grow over the past two years. While other students came together and fell apart, moving from one relationship to the next, Alice and Frank had remained constant. Despite the fact that Alice's brash personality should never have fitted with Frank's quiet one, somehow it did. From the moment they had started dating, something about the couple just made sense. Lily had watched them together, Alice happily listening as Frank rambled on about the latest Herbology discovery or Frank standing by Alice's side in the pouring rain as she cheered for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and she had watched them fall in love. Alice talked about how Frank was the one for her and Lily knew that it was true. She had expected graduation to bring the couple training side by side in the auror academy while juggling marriage and babies. But now what? That was it? The idea of Alice and Frank not being together seemed unimaginable to her and judging from the fact that she had yet to stop crying, it was unimaginable for Alice too. If they couldn't make it then what chance did anyone else have?

At that thought, she found her gaze drifting over to the group of four boys nestled in the far corner of the common room. Their heads were bent over and they were whispering fervently to each other. With their reputation for pranks, it didn't take a genius to work out they were plotting something. But Lily found herself disinterested in what it was they were up to and instead her thoughts were consumed with what the future held for her and James. Frank and Alice had been together for over two years and he had been unable to picture them having a future. In comparison, her and James had been together for a little over a month. What did that mean for them?

While others might have thought Lily rash for such worries after such a short period of time, she thought it prudent. She had always been a planner, ever since she was a little girl and she had drawn a seating plan for her teddy bears' picnic. She liked to have a concrete picture of her future and to be able to plan ahead. She knew that she wanted to work in the Ministry and fight in the Order and that she wanted to rent a small flat in Diagon Alley, either with Alice or Mary. But her relationship with James had created a vagueness in her future that she wasn't entirely comfortable with. And now that Alice and Frank had proven that no relationship was certain, that feeling of vagueness had just increased tenfold.

Shutting her book, having taking in no more information in the past twenty minutes, she tucked it under her arm and stood up to approach the four boys. She found herself being roughly shoved as the scrawny third-year who had been eyeing her seat all but dived into it.

"Watch it or I'll take five points away," she said, glaring at him as her Head Girl badge flickered in the firelight.

He gave her an apologetic shrug as he stretched out in the chair and she turned away. As she approached the table in the corner, various snatches of the conversation reached her ears.

"We could always try using a levitation charm," Remus muttered.

"Didn't we almost crush Mrs Norris with a desk the last time we tried that?" Peter asked worriedly.

"Details," Sirius chimed in, waving his hand as if almost killing an innocent creature were nothing. "We'll make it stronger this time and then…" He trailed off as she noticed Lily was now standing to his right. "To what do we owe the pleasure, Red?" he asked with a grin, nonchalantly draping an arm over the parchment that covered the table.

"I'm not here to tell you off, Sirius, if that's what you're worrying about."

"I never thought you were. So you're here to snog Prongs senseless then? Didn't get enough of him at lunch, did you?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively before swearing as James hit him on the arm.

"Sometimes I wonder how you get anything done with your mind permanently in the gutter," she said. She turned her attention to James and gave him a small smile. "Could I talk to you for a moment?"

He looked up at her and whatever it was that he saw in her eyes made him nod and shove his chair back.

"I'll be back in a few, gents. And Moony, don't let Sirius add anything to the plans without your approval first."

"I am not a child," Sirius protested, petulantly sticking his bottom lip out.

"Of course you're not," James said in a tone that made it clear he believed the complete opposite to be true. "Do you want to go up to the dorm or…" he asked, turning his attention back to Lily.

"Actually can we just step outside for a moment?"

He nodded and the pair made their way through the common room, his hand resting on the small of her back the entire way. They stepped out into the corridor and the portrait swung shut, leaving the noise of the common room behind.

"Is everything alright? I saw you sat by the fire earlier and I was going to come over but you seemed pretty deep in thought."

"Yeah I was. Um…" She trailed off, unable to find the words to express what she wanted to say.

James stared at her, a look of worry on his face, before taking her hand and leading her slightly further down the corridor, away from the prying gaze of the Fat Lady. The pair leant against the wall and he stepped closer to her, even though she kept her eyes firmly pinned to the floor, fidgeting with the hem of her jumper.

"Lily, what is it? What's wrong?" The concern was clear in his voice and he placed a hand under her chin so as to force her to look up at him.

"Frank and Alice broke up," she blurted out before shutting her mouth again. She pressed her lips together as if to stop any other unplanned sentences escaping.

James frowned, "yeah I know. Poor bloke seems distraught."

"Poor Frank? Alice is the one upstairs crying her eyes out, refusing to get out of bed!"

"Is that what this is about? Frank and Alice?"

"Yes- No. Well sort of. I don't know."

"Lily," he said softly. "Just tell me what's going on."

There was a moment of silence before she said, "what if we don't last?"

Whatever he had been expecting his girlfriend to say, it clearly wasn't that. He stood still for a moment, his mouth hanging open slightly and a look of confusion on his face.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Frank and Alice were together for over two years and now they're done, just like that. Everyone thought they were this perfect couple and that they were going to get married and now he's dumped her. Alice didn't even see it coming! She told me that he didn't see them having a future, and if Frank doesn't see them having a future then how are we meant to have one?"

"Lil-"

"I know we've only been together for a little over a month but you've been asking me out for years. So I don't think it's completely irrational for me to be thinking about the future! We're graduating in three months time. Three months! Alice told me that she thought her and Frank were going to get married and now boom, that's that plan gone. What if that's us? What if you don't see us having a future and you dump me before school finishes?"

"Lily," James said, attempting to interject again but she took no notice.

"I thought Frank and Alice were forever and now they're over. If a couple as solid as them can't make it then what chance does anyone else have? And I know it's selfish to be out here thinking about my own relationship when Alice is upstairs feeling heartbroken but I can't help it! This is what I'm like. I'm selfish and neurotic and I ramble all the time. What if you realise that's not what you want and you break up with me? What's the point in even trying to have a relationship if it's not going to work out? I don't-"

Whatever Lily was about to say was lost as James pressed his lips against hers, cutting her off mid-sentence. The kiss only lasted for a few seconds but it was enough to quiet her.

"I thought you were never going to stop," he said with a grin as he pulled away. She opened her mouth to speak again but he pressed a finger to her lips and shook his head. "It's my turn to speak. Yes it sucks that Frank and Alice broke up but we're not them."

"I know-" she started but she found his finger pressed against her lips again and she couldn't help but smile.

"We are not Frank and Alice. Just because it didn't work out for them doesn't mean the same is going to be true for everyone else, and it especially doesn't mean it's going to be true for us. You said that Frank didn't see him and Alice having a future, right? Well see, I totally see us having one. I see myself taking you home to meet mum this summer and you taking me to meet your dad. I see us moving in together and discovering all those annoying habits we weren't aware of like how I never hang towels up and how you always leave the lid off the peanut butter."

"I do not always leave the lid off the peanut butter!"

"Well that's what I'm going to find out when we live together," he said with a smirk. "We're going to fight side by side for the Order and I'll be so scared of what's going to happen to you. I'll try and convince you not to fight but there's no way that you'll let me stop you. So instead I'll spend every battle looking for your red hair amongst the crowd so I know you're okay. One day I'll finally pluck up the courage to ask you to marry me, and knowing me I'll complete mess up the proposal. We'll have a wedding where your father gives you away and Sirius makes a filthy best man's speech that causes me to swear that I'll never speak to him again. Then eventually we'll have little boys that look just like me and little girls that look just like you, all with your eyes of course. We'll be a family and we'll watch our children grow up and go to Hogwarts while we grow old together."

"James," she started but he kept talking.

"And I know that probably sounds crazy to you and so scary after we've only been dating for a month but I think that's a whole lot better than me not seeing us having a future at all. Because I've been thinking about my life with you since fourth year and there's no way I'm ever going to give that up. And the idea of me breaking up with you? That's impossible! I promise you right now that I will never break up with you, not in a million years."

He looked as if he was about to say something else but this time it was his turn to be cut off as Lily stood on tiptoe to kiss him. His hands slid to her waist as he pulled her towards him, feeling her loop her arms around his neck as she kissed him.

"You really see all that?" she asked as she pulled back slightly, leaning her forehead against his. "You see us getting married and having kids? Us growing old together? That's what you see in you in your future?"

"Yep. I hate to tell you this, Lily Evans, but you're sort of stuck with me now."

"I am?"

"Just ask Sirius. He had the misfortune of sitting in my carriage on the way to Hogwarts back in first year and he hasn't been able to get rid of me since. I'm like that. Once you let me in, I never go away. You're stuck with me until I'm old and grey, sitting in my armchair reminiscing about my glory days as Head Boy and Quidditch Captain."

"No matter how neurotic and crazy I get?"

"The crazier the better in my opinion," he grinned. "You and me, we're forever."

"Forever," she said with a smile. "I think I could manage that."

"Glad to hear it," he said before bending down to kiss her once more.


End file.
